


Infinity Gauntlet

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Fix-It, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Loss, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Redemption, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: (INFINITY WAR SPOILERS)Tony Stark did not fear death.His worst fear still found him.And he has to make it right again.





	1. Chapter 1

Tony Stark did not fear death. He should’ve been dead several times over - every minute since that cave in Afghanistan was stolen. He cheated death, and it came back to haunt him. 

 

He had been here before; lived in the echo of his trauma. The shadows followed him back into the real world. Tony had accepted that the darkness would follow him for the rest of his life. He could manage that. But this - this was carnage. And the darkness swallowed him whole. 

  
  


The pain was raw and fresh and burned in the core of his chest. It bubbled up into his throat. It caught in his stomach. It oozed through the gash in his side. The pain held him still against the dust and the dirt. 

  
  


Tony screamed.  He smashed his fist into the ground. He pulled back the armour and drove his fist against the rock again. And again, and again, until his knuckles were bloodied and his bones ached. The throbbing sting pulled away from the grief. 

  
  


It was his fault. He cheated death, again. And it cost the life of his team. 

  
  


“Get up,” someone said. Tony felt a hand wrap around his arm. 

  
  


“It should’ve been me,” he whispered.

  
  


“Yes, it should’ve.” 

  
  


Tony turned. The words didn’t cut him as deeply as the stranger - as  _ Nebula _  - meant them to. “They’re all gone.”

  
  


“We need to move,” Nebula hissed and pulled Tony up again. “We have to go now or we stand no chance.”

  
  


“What part of this don’t you get? We lost. It’s over.” Tony pushed her away and sat in the dirt. Ash clung to him, to his face, to his hands. Little black half-moons under his fingernails. His team. His kid. 

  
  


“As long as Thanos is still breathing it is not over,” Nebula stared at Tony. “I will follow him to the ends of the universe because this is not over.” 

  
  


Tony stared back. “They’re gone.” 

  
  


Nebula hauled Tony to his feet. “Quill’s ship is here still. It’s the only way you’re ever getting off of Titan. And you’re not staying here. Your life cost half the universe, and you’ll be onboard the Milano when it takes off.” 

 

Tony opened his mouth to protest, to tell her off, to beg to be left to die. He deserved that fate. 

  
  


Nebula cut him off. “This is not your choice. This is your duty.”

 

Tony nodded, numb. He followed her across the ruined planet, over the hunks of moon and metal wreckage. The world was chaos - primordial disorder. 

 

Tony had been four years old when the first men landed on the moon. He recalled it, vaguely, never sure if it was a true memory or dreams that he remembered as true. But he had never doubted that anything was possible, if you had brains and the right tools. He had always known that the realm of reality was defined by the powerful. 

 

And now, for the first time, he wished it wasn’t. He wished there were still things in the universe that just  _ weren’t possible _ , no matter how much power someone had. He would take being dead in a cave, with his chest full of shrapnel over this life. 

  
  


Quill’s ship sat in the rubble. The damage was minimal; only cosmetic. 

  
  


“You’re lucky,” Nebula said. 

  
  


Tony laughed. “I really don’t think that’s quite how I would put it.”

  
  


“The magician thought your life was worth an infinity stone. You’re the only one to walk away from Titan. You really think that’s not luck?”

 

Tony paused. “You’re here too.”

  
  


“That’s not luck. Thanos killed half of all life. I’m not alive.” She sat in the pilot’s seat and worked the controls. Tony didn’t protest. 

  
  


“We go to earth.”

 

Nebula stared at him. “There’s nothing left there. Thanos will have moved on by now.” She punched in coordinates. “We need to be ahead of Thanos, not behind him.”

  
  


Tony put his hand on her arm. Nebula glared at him. “No,” he said. “We go to earth, or I’m not going at all, okay Smurfette? We can’t get ahead of Thanos if we don’t know how it played out on earth.”

 

Nebula’s eyes narrowed. “They lost. That’s how it plays out.”

 

“I need to tell his aunt.” Tony’s voice broke. “She deserves to know. And I have to be the one to tell her.”

  
  


Nebula’s face softened. She didn’t speak. 

  
  


“Not just for the kid. Everyone who fought, everyone who died deserves to know what happened on Titan. We can’t let them be forgotten.” 

  
  


Her breath was short. “No. No, we can’t.” 

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Steve Rogers had lost men before. Good men, all young and willing to prove themselves. Before, well, before what he could only thinks of as  _ everything _ , he would lie awake at night and think of all the brave men and women risking their lives so good could triumph. He watched women become widows, children become orphans, mothers become childless. Each day he would read the list of names in the paper of the men injured and missing and killed. 

 

The list was alway too long. Some names he would recognize. James O’Conner was his neighbor. His mother lost all five of her boys. Paul Harris had worked at the butcher’s on the corner. He had only been married to his wife, Margaret, for four months before he was deployed. Most of the names were ghosts.

 

Steve slept for the first night in months after he enlisted. The weight wasn’t gone, but it was finally bearable. He knew he was doing right by the men gone before him. Their deaths  _ meant  _ something - they meant a better future. A better now. 

 

These deaths were meaningless. 

 

Steve sunk to the ground. He wasn’t use to the heat of Wakanda, and he could feel the exhaustion seeping into his bones. He knew it wasn’t only physical.

 

Natasha looked at him. Her face was wrought with concern, her brow steadied, the way she did to hide when she was confused. Which, Steve had to admit, was rare. But he knew Nat, now they had been on the lam for over a year. She never showed her fear.

 

She looked afraid now. They all did, the few that were left. No one spoke. They were stunned, rooted to their spots, terrified of moving. Of fading into dust. 

 

“We lost,” Thor said. It wasn’t an accusation. He wasn’t in disbelief, either. It was plain and simple. A fact. They lost. It was over. Thanos won. 

 

“They’re gone,” said Rhodes. 

 

Steve ran his hand over the ground again. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” He remembered the Priest at his mother’s funeral. Something about the natural cycle of life. That was a life ago; it was difficult to think of himself as that same, frail kid from Brooklyn. But then again, he was always getting into fights he couldn’t win. 

 

Steve had lost Bucky before. More than once - it looked careless on Steve’s part, the way Bucky kept slipping away. Steve refused to let him go, no matter how slim the chance. 

 

“Are they really gone?” The racoon said. Steve wondered when a  _ talking racoon _ became a normal part of his life. He sat on the trunk of a fallen tree, hands in lap and eyes downcast. “I’m not just having a mental breakdown, am I? That really just happened.”

 

Thor clapped his shoulder. “I’m sorry. There is no equal to such loss. The universe grieves today. There is never a satisfying answer to pointless slaughter.”

 

Thor’s eye were sunken in, his normal glowing smile missing from his face. There was pain in his heart. Deep loss. Since Steve had last seen Thor he had grown into himself; he held himself differently, kept his head higher. Maturity suited him -

 

“I’m sorry about your friend, Tree, Rabbit.” 

 

Steve shook his head. Everything was so absurd. He thought he was used to the strangeness of his life long ago. But he didn’t think he could ever find normal. 

 

“What do we do?” Nat asked. 

 

No one spoke. The collective gaze landed on Steve. They never had to vote him the leader. 

 

“I,” he started, “I don’t know.” The star spangled man without a plan. He couldn’t think. There was too much noise in his head. Flashes of memory kept rushing back in, bits from the war, memories of his childhood home, parts of his first days in the 21st. His mind was everywhere but the present. 

 

Bruce stepped in. He knew when a man was broken. “There’s going to be fallout from this. Is doesn’t just end here

 

“He’s right,” Nat said. “There’s going to be fires. Car crashes. Children left by themselves.”

 

“I’ll contact the military,” said Rhodes. “They can get a large scale response rolling back at home.” He pressed on his earpiece and frowned. “Anyone got a working com?” 

 

They all tried, without luck. “I doubt these are the only lines down,” said Bruce. 

 

“There might be something working. I’ll get to the city centre and see what we can get working,” said Rhodes. 

 

“And after that?” Steve asked.  

 

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But there’s a hell of a lot of brain powering Wakanda.” He nodded, curtly, and took off. 

 

They watched him streak over the jungle toward the line of skyscrapers. His damage suit sputtered. No one spoke. 

 

“If we get the gauntlet back, we could undo this, right?” Nat said. 

 

“We couldn’t even stop him before he had all the stones. We couldn’t hold a candle to him now.” Steve said. 

 

“No, Natasha is right,” said Thor. “Those stones are he only hope we have.” He picked up his axe and wiped the blackened purple guts from the blade. “We were so close.”

 

“We’ll never beat him without the gauntlet. And he’ll never lose as long as he has it.” Thor frowned as Steve spoke. 

 

“Asgard was destroyed. I lost my father, my hammer, and my homeworld,” Thor said. He turned his axe over in his hand without looking up. “We were lucky. I thought we were, at least. Got my people onto a refugee ship.” He swallowed. “Then Thanos found us. He came for the space stone. He slaughtered half the refugees. My people. My best friend.” He paused and wiped at his eyes. “Loki.” 

 

The survivors looked at each other, unsure what to say. “Thor, I’m sorry,” Steve said. He had heard the story from Banner, before the fight. But seeing Thor’s face, his pain. 

 

“I’m looking for pity.” He looked at Steve. “My people, half of them are dead. Good, old, regular dead. There’s no coming back from that. But everyone who turned to dust - well, if we fight, we stand a chance to save them. I would give anything for even the  _ chance  _ to see the whole of my people again.”

 

Steve didn’t know what to say. 

 

“How do we find him?” Nat asked. 

 

“I don’t know,” Thor replied. “But I can contact someone who might be able to.”

 

Steve’s earpiece beeped. “I’m getting a signal,” he called and clicked it on.

 

The message came through as mostly static. The signal was weak, but the voice came through. “Testing, test.” It was Shuri. At least she was alive. The young woman had helped Bucky and Steve over the last months. He owed her. 

 

“Go ahead,” Steve said. 

 

“I’m working on getting communications up. We’re opening up new lines every minute.” Steve nodded to himself. “But Captain, your team must be ready to move.”

 

“What’s happening Shuri.” 

 

“It’s New York. Reports are coming in. Another spaceship just crashed into the East River, just outside of Brooklyn.”


	3. Chapter 3

The ship lurched into the river. Dirty water sloshed up on the sides. Bits of debris fell from the Brooklyn Bridge. Tony could see a few cars that had crashed into each other. They blocked traffic. Some people ran through the throng of wreckage, away from Manhattan. 

 

Nebula pulled on a lever and opened the side of the ship. Water lapped at the metal hull. She nodded at Tony without speaking. She reminded him of Natasha - hiding her pain behind the tough visage. There was pain, though. So much pain. Even the bravest couldn’t hold back an ocean. 

 

The suit fired to life around him. Tony gave a fake salute and pushed off into the sky. His suit was failing, badly damaged from the fight. He was surprised it was flying at all, but it still sputtered across the sky. 

 

The world below looked unreal. He couldn’t believe the sky was still so blue, that the grass was green. People rushed about, helping each other, fleeing from crashes, crying in despair. The truth was he never expected to see it again. Any of it. He knew the media loved to still show him as the impulsive idiot he was ten years ago. But taking off after the ship, after Doctor Strange - that wasn’t an impulsive choice. When he pushed away from the ground, he never expected to see it again, but there were two things on that ship that was worth leaving Earth behind. The time stone and Peter. They were worth it. 

 

The low rise building in Forest Hills looked so normal from the outside. It hadn’t changed from the first time he was there, just about a year ago now. The trees around the side were a little bigger. The bystanders were gawking. Tony felt the eyes fixed on him as he walked into the building. Even in the chaos, people were pausing their panic for a moment to stare at him. No one stopped him. 

 

He knocked on the door. He held the pain in his throat, holding his voice as steady as he could. 

 

May Parker whipped open the door. Her eyes were red, already. For a moment, her face flickered and light up at seeing Tony. But the hope disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. 

 

She sank to the ground and sobbed. Tony knelt next to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

 

“He’s gone.”

 

“We couldn’t stop it.  _ I  _ couldn’t stop it. But Peter - May, Peter came the closest out of all of us.”

 

“Did he…” May trailed off, unsure how to finish her question. 

 

“He disappeared. Thanos took half of the universe. Peter included.” Tony paused, trying not to choke up. Peter was May’s family, not his. “May I - I’m sorry.”

 

May bit her lip and wiped her eyes. “Tony, this isn’t your fault.”

  
  


* * *

 

 

Nebula stared at Tony as he flew back into the ship. “You look awful.”

 

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you’re Miss America either.”

 

“What’s a Miss America?” 

 

Tony sighed. “That’s not the point. We need to take a break before we can start to rally a resistance. There’s a compound upstate.” _And Pepper might be there_. He hadn’t been able to reach her yet. Communications were down Earth wide. He tried to send out a message and link up with FRIDAY, but nothing worked. “At the compound, we’ll have more resources, we can try and contact.” Tony stopped. “Contact whoever will respond, I guess.” 

 

Nebula gave Tony a small nod and lifted the ship into the air again. The water streamed off the wings. Tony could see the chaos in New York below. He knew he should go, help with the rescue efforts. But there had to be police, military, other forces that could help lull the noise. He didn’t think that he would be useful, not like this at least. And besides - 

 

The Milano shook and a bang echoed through the interior. Tony stumbled to the ground, ears ringing and dizzy. “What the ever living  _ fuck _ was that?”

 

Nebula, luckily for Tony, had fared better after the blast. She focused on the controls and tried to level the ship. “Dunno,” she flipped some switches and readjust. The Milano was tail-spinning now. “We’ve lost an engine.”

 

_ Shit. _ The ship had been damaged badly enough when they left Titan. Tony breathed out. “Bring the ship into the water. I’ll carry us to land.” He called the suit up again. Warning messages blinked across his display. Low power. Terminal damage. 

 

“Like hell, you will.” Nebula pushed against a lever again, but the mechanism wouldn’t budge. Alarms blurred from the control panel. “I KNOW,” she yelled at the alarm and smacked the blinking light. 

 

“Nebula,” Tony called, “Open the door. Now.”

 

“I’m trying,” she snapped back. “The system’s locked me out.”

 

“I’m sorry about this then.” Tony wrapped one arm around Nebula and held up his other hand. Tony blasted the hull of the ship and the metal peeled back. The pressure pulled them out. Tony wrapped his other arm around Nebula, holding her close as he flew away from the wreckage falling into the East River. 

 

His suit sputtered and died, finally out of power. “Hold tight,” he yelled, “this is gonna be a rough landing. I hope you know how to swim.” He closed his eyes and braced for the pain of the water. 

 

It never came. He felt a hand wrap around his bicep and yank him out of the sky. If he hadn’t been wearing the suit, it might’ve wrenched his arm of its socket. Whoever it was, though, set him down on a cool floor. 

 

Tony blinked his eyes open. He was in some kind of ship still. 

 

“I told you - don’t shoot.” An angry voice came from behind Tony. “I told you that was our ships.”

 

“We couldn’t risk it.” And - oh god - Tony knew that voice. He couldn’t forget it. 

 

Tony turned, slowly, onto his side and stood. “Captain.” He nodded. 

 

“Tony.” He nodded back. “And please, it’s just Steve.”


End file.
